Make the Holidays a Launching Pad for Repeat Business

Kern Lewis
, ContributorI love forging the right marketing mix for businesses on tight budgetsOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

What can you do as a small business owner between now and the end of the year to set your business up for a better 2012? Remember that every interaction you have with a customer or client is a chance to set up business for the future, whether that future is the following month or 12 months away. Sales you close in November should have a spiff for a return trip in December, for instance, and you should repeat that exercise in December to encourage a return visit in January. You need to challenge yourself right now to find the time to set programs up to encourage future sales, even during the busiest retail season of the year. Lock in loyalty with steady deal-making From October through December, most retailers (and many service providers) have people crowding the aisles, or elevated traffic to websites. As one of these businesses, your impulse is to concentrate all energies on squeezing the maximum dollar out of each holiday interaction. I agree that is a priority, but as a close second you must weave in time and energy focused on locking in future sales opportunities with these same people. Here are a few ideas about how to accomplish that: Insert a future buying opportunity into every sale. Examples you could adapt to your business:

Significant discount on a purchase “next month” of a minimum amount.

A month-long discount for January, for any amount and unlimited visits.

Super Bowl and other January sporting event tie-ins.

Early Valentine’s Day notices.

2012 political themes or MLK Legacy themes (tastefully, please)

Create or enrich your frequent buyer/user club with extra rewards for all of the customer’s first quarter 2012 business.

The specific discounts and special offers will vary by your type of business, but each must be meaningfully valuable for the customer. A 5% discount, for instance, on groceries or clothes isn’t going to cut it. You are investing in building loyalty through a repeat visit, so give an offer that reflects potential future business. In short, every interaction you have with a customer, even if they don’t end up buying, results with an offer for next month in their hands. Make the future deals automatic

Online shopping carts insert the deal into that customer’s account file, and prompts them about it in January.

Have phone salespeople do the same, flagging every customer’s file with the promotion, even if they buy nothing. (“Thank you for calling. I am going to put a special code in your account for a 10% discount on anything you buy in January, just because you called us.”)

In-store, your “next month offer slip” leaves the store with every customer. You might even have employees stationed at the exits handing them out, and asking if the customer had a satisfactory visit. Train those employees to steer unhappy store-leavers to places where they can redress what went wrong, either right then or later.

In short, attach no strings to the deal. Make it “a gift that keeps on giving!” Bribe people to stay in touch Make it a top priority to capture contact information any way you can while all the extra holiday customers are in your store.

Use the above “next-month” specials, and in-store discounts on current purchases as attractions for joining the mailing list.

Make this a critical task for your employees at all touch points.

Have a slip of paper or pop-up window that details your privacy policy: Promise uncategorically to share customer information with no one outside your company.

Make clear what your planned frequency of communication will be, and give people options: “Would you prefer weekly or monthly e-mails?”

Have a written description of what they can expect to receive in those communications that your employees can share in-person or on the phone. Present it in a pop-up window on your site, accessible from a nice, prominent button right next to the opt-in form.

In short, train your employees that capturing contact information is JOB #2 after helping the customer find and buy what they seek. And that Job #2 is really Job #1A. They should never be pushy, but they should never forget to ask, and to offer the inducement that you have designed to encourage people to give you permission to stay in touch. If you don’t make future business a priority during the busy holiday season, you will dent your chances for a more prosperous New Year. Find the time to make repeat business and loyalty-building a core part of every customer interaction, even when you are too busy for words!